GH4 From Hating to Loving the GH4: Valuable Lessons I've Learned Along The Way

N

nathannguyen59

Active member

So here is my latest video with the GH4. I have come up from the GH2 and at first I did not like the results I was getting with the new camera. I thought my shots would be more crisp, have more dynamic range, and overall look more cinematic. After researching other GH4 videos online, I began using Cine-D picture style with the settings dialed down and master pedestal dialed up to +10 or +15. But for me, this resulted in a very noisy image and because I am not one for color correction and grading, this left my images looking muddied.

Fast forward a few projects with the GH4 and I'm now loving the camera more and more. First and foremost, I stopped using Cine-D picture style. Like I said earlier, I am not one for color grading so I try to get the colors right in-camera. With that in mind, I use a Vivid picture style with the contrast and sharpness dialed all the way down. All other settings are the same. I do not touch master pedestal. By using these settings, it was much easier to get that pop in colors. Personally, I like contrasty and saturated images and this made it easier to get that intended look.

I used Juan Melara's custom LUT despite having the Impulz LUTs at my disposal. I feel that the Impulz LUTS are little too stylistic, bordering on the Magic Bullet Looks realm. Maybe I'm not a good enough colorist to use them, but I prefer Juan Melara's LUTs because they give me the saturation and contrast that I'm going for, without altering the overall color balance.

So let me know what you guys think and if you have any comments or suggestions on my workflow. Anything will be much appreciated!
 
I am one of those who typically considers the true way to get a cinematic look is to color correct and work towards polishing that look in post. Color correction is not an optional skill set for film making and one everybody should get a better grasp of. Yes it takes extra work but whoever said making a movie was supposed to be easy. There tends to be a misconception that it is the camera that makes movies look great but that isn't always the case. A lot of it comes down to the look the colorist creates. Even 35mm film in its purest form isn't all that exciting. RAW is even worse and almost always requires some level of color correction to help guide the look.

With that said I am also in the camp that when it comes to an 8bit compressed camera you really should try to bake in as much of the look in camera as possible. If one wants to complete grade a flat image in post this is not the camera for that and the GH4 community should really consider using it to its strengths like you have. Don't fight the camera and use it where it excels at quality. That doesn't eliminate grading in post because no camera can achieve the exact look one wants for a project but it can at least get you partially or mostly there. Of course baking in a look doesn't really help for matching shots in different angles or environments. You still need to color match your shots but if you only have to push those RGB sliders a couple of percentages your image will stay solid.
 
My first thought is that it doesn't look natural. It's too conrtasty and saturated. The writer looks something of an Oompa-Loompa.
 
Nice job, Nathann. Love the typewriter key sound effects. Skintones are tough. Here's a clip I shot last week - no color correction. And yes I know the exposure is all over the place :) shot with the 14-140 II in 4K Natural. I think natural is a good way to go.

https://vimeo.com/109511273
 
I think the image looks too contrasty as well. The skin tones are much too bright and flat which looks very unnatural to me.

But my experience with the GH4 is the same. With the right settings and good postproduction the image could look very cinematic. This is a teaser of a new music video made by me:
http://vimeo.com/109321719
 
DeeZiD said:
I think the image looks too contrasty as well. The skin tones are much too bright and flat which looks very unnatural to me.

But my experience with the GH4 is the same. With the right settings and good postproduction the image could look very cinematic. This is a teaser of a new music video made by me:
http://vimeo.com/109321719
Click to expand...


Wow....you win. That's the best looking GH4 video I have seen.
 
Very nice DeZID what picture profile and settings did you shoot with ?
 
Last edited:
Kit said:
Very nice DeZID what picture profile and settings did you shoot with ?
Click to expand...

Thanks, used CinelikeD with the following settings:
Contrast: -2
Sharpness: -5
Noise reduction: -5
Saturation: -5
Hue: 2
Highlights/Shadows/iDynamic/iResolution: OFF
Master Pedestal: 0
 
I'm going to try these settings next time to see what they get me. The results you got were very nice. Do you happen to have your custom LUT downloadable anywhere?
 
DeeZiD said:
Thanks, used CinelikeD with the following settings:
Contrast: -2
Sharpness: -5
Noise reduction: -5
Saturation: -5
Hue: 2
Highlights/Shadows/iDynamic/iResolution: OFF
Master Pedestal: 0
Click to expand...

Nice!

Yup, similar settings that work for me. Sometimes leave NR at -2 or -3 but mostly the same settings. Gotta put that Saturation down to -5 to get rid of that oompa-loompa look.
 
nathannguyen59 said:

So here is my latest video with the GH4. I have come up from the GH2 and at first I did not like the results I was getting with the new camera. I thought my shots would be more crisp, have more dynamic range, and overall look more cinematic. After researching other GH4 videos online, I began using Cine-D picture style with the settings dialed down and master pedestal dialed up to +10 or +15. But for me, this resulted in a very noisy image and because I am not one for color correction and grading, this left my images looking muddied.

Fast forward a few projects with the GH4 and I'm now loving the camera more and more. First and foremost, I stopped using Cine-D picture style. Like I said earlier, I am not one for color grading so I try to get the colors right in-camera. With that in mind, I use a Vivid picture style with the contrast and sharpness dialed all the way down. All other settings are the same. I do not touch master pedestal. By using these settings, it was much easier to get that pop in colors. Personally, I like contrasty and saturated images and this made it easier to get that intended look.

I used Juan Melara's custom LUT despite having the Impulz LUTs at my disposal. I feel that the Impulz LUTS are little too stylistic, bordering on the Magic Bullet Looks realm. Maybe I'm not a good enough colorist to use them, but I prefer Juan Melara's LUTs because they give me the saturation and contrast that I'm going for, without altering the overall color balance.

So let me know what you guys think and if you have any comments or suggestions on my workflow. Anything will be much appreciated!
Click to expand...
Very nice. I like the editing and sound a lot. The colors are a bit too contrasty for my taste, at least on my monitor, but if that's the intended effect then who am I to argue.

Well done!
 
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